Vale of Clwyd AM, Ann Jones, has congratulated Denbighshire County Council for its improvement in secondary education standards, after news that no Denbighshire school will receive additional funding under the new School Challenge Cymru scheme.
Ms Jones said: “For many years, Denbighshire Council did not put in place the right support for schools to give our children the education they deserved.
“I am pleased to see that no Denbighshire school has been considered to be among the most challenging schools in Wales.
“Improvements can still be made and I am urging Denbighshire to keep ploughing away and build on its good work. The only possible way of doing that is by honouring the commitment of the Welsh Labour Government to increase schools spending by 1% year on year. It is important Denbighshire deliver this to ensure that headteachers can continue to improve standards and results”.
Forty underperforming schools across have been selected to take part in a £20m scheme to improve standards and increase pupil’s performance.
The schools will be part of Schools Challenge Cymru which aims to improve the quality of teaching and learning by sharing expertise with high-performing schools.
Working with their own Schools Challenge Cymru advisor, each qualifying school will be given the opportunity to access proven expertise, to deliver a package of support that is individually tailored to meet each school’s needs and the needs of their learners. The programme will be backed by around £20 million of Welsh Labour Government funding.
The programme will also provide targeted support to participant schools’ cluster primaries in order to address challenges at the earliest opportunity and improve transition between these key stages of education.
